Try to imagine, if you can in this age of contention, a style of group decision-making in which participants arrive at a decision that everyone accepts with grace. No “owning” your ideas. No hurt feelings. No battling, blame or sour grapes.
This unique, non-adversarial method of group decision-making that unites people rather than divides them, as prescribed by Baha’u’llah, is known as Baha’i consultation. When followed properly, consultation calls for finding a solution based on a desire to be of service rather than for personal aggrandizement or constituency-building.
Baha’i consultation usually opens with prayer, and then, using frank and loving conversation, progresses to ascertaining the facts, understanding the spiritual principles involved and applying the Faith’s teachings on those principles.
Baha’is consult
After discussing possible solutions, participants arrive at a decision either unanimously or through majority vote. Then they find it in themselves to fully support the decision and not undermine it, even if it’s not the one they thought was best. The reason is simple: The only way to know if a decision is right or wrong is for the group to act on it wholeheartedly. If a decision is wrong, that will become clear in time.
This commitment to unity ensures that if a decision is wrong, the problem lies in the idea itself and not in the divisive actions of opponents.
Baha’is use consultation to make decisions – both big and small – in a variety of situations. For example, consultation is the main form of discussion used in the Baha’i elected governing councils throughout the world. Decisions there are made on topics ranging from personal matters brought to assemblies by individuals, to the use of funds, to the best way to share the teachings of the Baha’i Faith with the public. Consultation is also used by individual Baha’is for personal and family matters.
The procedure works most of the time. When it doesn’t, Baha’is acknowledge the need to rely on spiritual principles and welcome the challenge to try, try again.
Ask Baha’is about consultation, and you’ll get a variety of thoughts.
Penny Filias, a Baha’i from Ontario, Canada, asks you to picture consultation as a group of individuals sitting in a circle around a statue. In this analogy, members take turns describing what they see and wind up with “a 360-degree vision — something that is not possible for any of them to achieve individually.”
She says the “clarity and accuracy potential” of this “world-embracing vision” (a phrase Baha’is use to describe the Faith) depends on the willingness and ability of members to share and communicate effectively (some members may need glasses).”
And some just need to learn what consultation is and what it isn’t. For instance, a new Baha’i was thoroughly flummoxed and upset when a meeting participant put forth an idea and later voted against it.
Sina Mowzoon of Chandler, Ariz., says she explained to the new Baha’i that the man believed his idea was good, but in keeping an open mind and listening to others’ ideas, he came to understand that “his way was not the best. That," she says, “is the true spirit of consultation. As Abdu’l-Baha said, ‘The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions.’”
One of the ways that Baha’i consultation differs from other forms of decision-making, such as conflict resolution, is that it does not assume the existence of opposing sides. Instead, the participants are engaged in a search for the truth of whatever question is under discussion. They don’t think in terms of winning or losing; they simply strive to find the best solution. They acknowledge that others in the group may have as much to contribute as they do.
Consultation doesn’t work, however, if “the person offering the position holds onto it and becomes insistent, says Jane Saunders of Andover, Kan. “Then disunity results.”
Another challenge, she adds, is allowing “dominant personalities to battle it out,” in which case discussion remains “only a battle.” If “meeker personalities are brought into the consultation loop, however, they’re often the ones who come up with the solution that the group chooses.”
Consultation, Baha’is agree, is a skill that’s acquired through practice and understanding its principles. New Baha’is sometimes say they have a hard time letting go of an idea once they present it to the group.
“I’m still working on not ‘owning’ my ideas,” one Baha’i said. After bringing up the same suggestion several times — commonly done in “real-world” meetings — an experienced group member gently set her straight, for which she says she’s grateful.
“I’m happy when my ideas are part of the final decision, but I derive deeper satisfaction when the group comes to a good decision, regardless of whether it was mine.”